Friends?
by XiaoBai
Summary: Christmas is round the corner and Madoka gives Ayumu a task of getting presents for his friends. But who are his friends? Hiyono is one...but is she the only friend he had?First shot. RR


This is my first go at a Spiral fic! Hope you guys like it though...Comments are welcomed but flames are certainly not allowed.  
  
NOTE: Everyone may seem a little OOC here, but who cares! Everyone is supposed to be good on Christmas! ^^ And this fic follows the manga because I never watched the anime before...*sniffs*  
  
Disclaimer: Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna and the wonderful characters in it do not belong to me. This plot might belong to me but I'm not sure if anyone had used it before...  
  
This fic is dedicated to everyone who loves Christmas!  
  
Summary: It's Christmas and Madoka gave Ayumu the task of giving his friends presents. But who are his friends? Hiyono is one...but is she the only friend he had? First shot at Spiral fic. Please RR!!  
  
--  
  
The moment he opened the main door, everything he saw was white. He rubbed his hands together and tried to warm them with his breath.  
  
Narumi Ayumu frowned slightly as he locked the front door.  
  
" Today is colder than usual..." He muttered, his breath forming small clouds of white mist.  
  
As he walked out of the front porch, Ayumu breathed into his hands again and looked up in to the white sky.  
  
It was beginning to snow again, and snow marked the arrival of Christmas.  
  
--  
  
Friends?  
  
--  
  
By: XiaoBai  
  
--  
  
Ayumu came out today mainly to do his grocery shopping. His sister seemed to develop this sudden craving for food, thus the refrigerator at home was practically empty.  
  
Sighing slightly, he made his way through the crowded streets and went into the departmental store.  
  
The minute he stepped into the super market, Ayumu went straight to the usual place; the place which displayed cans of alcohol and tidbits on many shelves. Frowning slightly, he grabbed one whole pack of beer as well as a whole lot of tidbits and threw them into the shopping basket.  
  
" One of these days she is going to kill herself if she keeps on eating like that..." Ayumu grumbled slightly. He moved on to the fresh food corner and got all the ingredients he will need for dinner.  
  
After he obtained everything, he checked the grocery list (made by Narumi Madoka of course) once more and raised an eyebrow.  
  
" Christmas presents for everyone you know." Ayumu read from the list. He stared incredulously at it for another minute before getting out his mobile phone.  
  
" Hello?" The person on the other end of the line greeted.  
  
Ayumu snapped, " Oneesan, what do you mean by 'Christmas presents for everyone *I* know'? Do you mean I have to give practically EVERYONE I know presents?!"  
  
Madoka laughed slightly, " Ayumu, that is not what I meant! What I want you to do is to get presents for anyone you think is considered to be your friend or close to you. I am very busy now, Ayumu. If you want to talk about anything, wait until I got home."  
  
With that, Madoka hung up.  
  
Ayumu glared at the phone and pressed the 'off' button rather angrily.  
  
" Friends..." Ayumu muttered, " Do I have friends in the first place?"  
  
--  
  
Ayumu sat at the café beside the road pondering on the task his sister had given to him.  
  
" Get Christmas presents for people I think are my friends." Ayumu said again for the 20th time. He sighed and took another drink from his cup of coffee. Taking out a pen from his pocket, Ayumu supported his head with his other arm and began writing on a small piece of paper (which happened to be blank side of the grocery list).  
  
" Friends." Ayumu muttered as he wrote, " Hmmmm... is a friend is someone you are pretty close with? Or is it someone who knows you rather well? In that case...Hiyono should be one."  
  
Ayumu wrote Hiyono's name on the paper and stared at it. It was then did he realize that he really don't have many friends. Ayumu snorted. Perhaps he really had only one friend.  
  
" Unlike brother..." Ayumu muttered, " He always has many friends..."  
  
Ayumu sighed and was about to take another sip at his coffee when someone pulled at the other chair of his table.  
  
Ayumu looked up and saw Hiyono smiling back at him.  
  
" Hello, Ayumu!" Hiyono greeted, sitting down next to him, " What are you doing?"  
  
" Making a list of friends I have." Ayumu said, not bothering to hide whatever he was doing because Hiyono will find out in the end.  
  
Hiyono raised an eyebrow, " Do people make lists of the number of friends they have?"  
  
Ayumu shrugged, " Normally, they shouldn't. But I had no idea who my friends are, and so far the only friend I can think of is you."  
  
Hiyono smiled, " I'm honoured, Ayumu! So, you want help?"  
  
Ayumu blinked, " You can help me in this?"  
  
Hiyono smiled and nodded, " Yep! I can list many other friends you have."  
  
Ayumu held his pen in ready and said, " Okay, so who are they?"  
  
" Asazuki Kousuke is one." Hiyono said. Ayumu winced and stared at Hiyono incredulously, " What?!"  
  
Hiyono blinked, " You didn't hear me? I said Asazuki Kousuke is one of your friends."  
  
" Oh please! How can that redheaded liar that doesn't keep his promises be my friend?!" Ayumu said, still staring incredulously at Hiyono.  
  
Hiyono smiled, " Even if the two of you don't want to admit it, you are still friends!" She grabbed the pen and paper from Ayumu and wrote Kousuke's name down.  
  
" Next," Hiyono continued, scribbling furiously on the piece of paper, " Takeuchi Rio."  
  
" Huh?!" Ayumu exclaimed, " That scary little thing disguised in a form of a cute little girl?!"  
  
Hiyono ignored Ayumu and carried on scribbling, " And one more friend of yours is..."  
  
She scribbled a name and put down the pen. Ayumu stared at her, " Who is it, Hiyono?"  
  
Hiyono smiled, " Eyes Rutherford."  
  
Ayumu almost fell out of the chair the moment Hiyono said 'Eyes'.  
  
"WHAT?!" Ayumu exclaimed. Hiyono shushed him when he received a few glances from other customers of the café and said, " These three people and me are your friends, Ayumu. Although these three might not be very good friends of yours, but they are still friends."  
  
Ayumu's eyebrow was twitching, " Friends, huh? I seemed to remember that Asazuki had tried to kill me by exposing me to 38 wasps...and before that, we were almost killed by that stupid Chinese tortoise bomb at Rutherford's concert! And just weeks ago, that Rio had almost succeeded in killing me with that necklace-like bomb. You call people who put my life on danger *friends*?!"  
  
Hiyono smiled at Ayumu's outburst and said, " But you are too involved in their situation now. You can no longer pull out. So why not treat them as friends instead of enemies. After all, they seemed to need your help. Don't tell me you will leave them alone to fend themselves against those ruthless Hunters? I do not think that Rutherford can win the Hunters with his brain, Kousuke's knife and Rio's bombs."  
  
Ayumu realized that he had nothing to reply to Hiyono's questions. Sighing slightly, he took back the list and his pen and said somewhat reluctantly, " Okay, okay. Damn...now I have to spend more for Christmas."  
  
Hiyono smiled happily at Ayumu and said, " I've got to go now, Ayumu. See you tomorrow!"  
  
After she left, Ayumu stared out of the window at the moving cars, took another look at the list of names and sighed.  
  
" Let's start thinking about what to get for them."  
  
--  
  
" Here."  
  
Hiyono looked at the present on her table and then at Ayumu (who was currently looking away to hide his embarrassment) and smiled, " Arigatou, Ayumu!"  
  
Ayumu ruffled his hair slightly and replied, " It's nothing much. Just something small...my budget is really low." He sighed and glanced at Hiyono, " Treat it as a thank you gift from me."  
  
Hiyono blushed slightly and smiled. She took a small bag from her bag and handed it to Ayumu, " This is my present to you. Merry Christmas, Ayumu."  
  
Ayumu took the present and nodded awkwardly, " Aah. Thanks."  
  
Hiyono then handed Ayumu another three bag and said, " These are for Rio, Rutherford and Asazuki. Help me give it to them, okay?"  
  
Ayumu frowned, " Why don't you give them yourself?"  
  
Hiyono smiled, " I'm not that familiar with them. Just help me give it to them."  
  
Ayumu sighed and nodded.  
  
" I will."  
  
--  
  
Ayumu had called Kousuke and told him to meet at one of the seats beside the river without giving him any reason. Being rather suspecting, Kousuke had made many precautions before going to the meeting place in case Ayumu decided to send him to the police station.  
  
Kousuke had expected at least a group of policemen waiting for him. Instead, he was surprised greatly when Ayumu had shoved two presents in his face, telling him that one was from Hiyono and the other was from Ayumu himself.  
  
Kousuke stared at the two presents in front of him and then stared at Ayumu, who looked rather embarrassed. He looked from the presents to Ayumu again and placed his hands on his forehead and on Ayumu's forehead.  
  
Ayumu moved quickly away and snapped, " What are you doing?!"  
  
Kousuke looked at the hand, which had touched Ayumu's forehead thoughtfully and said, " If you are not having a fever... then you must be drugged by that creepy girl that follows you."  
  
Ayumu glared at Kousuke and rubbed his forehead slightly, " I'm not sick, drugged or hypnotised or whatever, Asazuki. I'm just giving you a present for Christmas. Is there anything wrong with that?"  
  
Kousuke looked at Ayumu as if he was crazy, " Nothing wrong with that? Actually, there are many things wrong with that. Firstly, do you give presents to someone who almost killed you? Secondly, do you give presents to someone whom you are not very familiar with? Answer is no."  
  
" Answer is yes." Ayumu said. He sat down beside Kousuke and gazed at the river.  
  
" I never had a real friend before. From nursery to elementary school to junior high school to high school, I didn't have any friends. Everyone of them didn't wanted to come close to me because they-well-they were jealous of me... I had tried to make friends before but I had overheard one of them saying I am a proud person and a show-off." Ayumu gritted his teeth and continued, " I am not a proud person and not a show-off. I do not believe that I have a lot of intelligence and talent. Anything I do will not change the fact that I am in my brother's shadow. Yet no one really understands me. Just like that, seventeen years of my life came and went."  
  
" In other words, you were a loner for seventeen years." Kousuke said quietly.  
  
" And now, I am too involved in the Blade Children's business to pull out. So I might as well treat you guys as friends rather than enemies." Ayumu laughed slightly and added, " What Hiyono had said was rather logical..."  
  
He stood up from the seat and looked at Kousuke, " If you don't want the presents, you can just throw them away. It's nothing big or expensive, so I don't mind if you did. As for Hiyono's, I'm not sure about it..." Ayumu gave a small shrug and began to walk away.  
  
Kousuke stood up and shouted after Ayumu, " Wait!"  
  
Ayumu stopped and turned around slightly. Kousuke frowned slightly in thought before turning to face Ayumu.  
  
" Thanks."  
  
Ayumu smiled a little and walked off.  
  
--  
  
Ayumu turned around when he heard footsteps and saw Rio staring at him with a guarded expression.  
  
Ayumu smiled, " Hello."  
  
Rio raised an eyebrow, " Let's get to the main point. Why did you call me for, and where did you get my telephone number?"  
  
Ayumu's smile widened, " That is a business secret. Anyway, here, take this. "  
  
He handed Rio two bags and Rio stared at it.  
  
" What's that?"  
  
" They are presents," Ayumu replied, taking Rio's hand and placing the bags in her hand, " Presents for you from Hiyono and me. Take it or leave it, okay?"  
  
He turned around and was about to set off to the next destination when Rio said, " Why did you give me presents?"  
  
Ayumu sighed, " Go and ask that redhead. I need to get to Rutherford's place by 2 pm today or else he won't get his surprise."  
  
Rio raised an eyebrow, " You are giving Eyes presents too?"  
  
Ayumu laughed at that and said, " You can say it is a present..."  
  
Rio cast one more cautious look at Ayumu before saying grudgingly, " Thanks for the presents."  
  
Ayumu nodded, " Merry Christmas to you."  
  
--  
  
The minute Eyes opened the door of his apartment; he heard the familiar ticking of a bomb clock.  
  
Immediately, Eyes scanned the room around for the bomb and found it lying on the centre of the room in a box.  
  
The purple-haired boy moved quickly towards the bomb while his other hand reached for his mobile phone.  
  
" Hello?" Rio answered him.  
  
" Rio, please come down to my apartment at once. There is a bomb here." Eyes said calmly. Rio gave a small gasp before saying, " Yes, I understood."  
  
Suddenly the bomb gave a loud 'Click!' and a small turtle that resembled a teacher appeared.  
  
[Hello! I am Intelligence the Turtle Teacher! Now, if you want to deactivate this bomb, you will have to answer these questions. If you are ready, please press the red button.]  
  
Eyes scanned the bomb for the red button and pressed it. What followed after the pressing of buttons was a series of really tough mind bogglers and trick questions.  
  
After around 30 questions, the Teacher Turtle gave a laugh.  
  
[You are really very intelligent, Rutherford. Now for the ultimate question: Can you guess who I really am? Time left is 59 seconds~~]  
  
Eyes frowned slightly in thought before something clicked in his mind. Snorting quietly, Eyes said, " You are Narumi Ayumu."  
  
The bomb clock stopped ticking and the Turtle Teacher laughed.  
  
[Congratulation, Eyes Rutherford! You have succeeded in deactivating a FAKE bomb! Just to inform you, this is a Christmas present from Narumi Ayumu. Merry Christmas!]  
  
Eyes stared at the Turtle Teacher for a long time, his thin eyebrow twitching slightly. The door opened suddenly and Rio rushed in.  
  
" Where is the bomb, Eyes?" Rio asked. Eyes pointed at the 'bomb' and said, " Narumi Ayumu did this. This is my Christmas present from him."  
  
Rio blinked at the Turtle Teacher and said, " SO this is the surprise he said he is going to give you."  
  
Eyes looked at Rio curiously, " You know about it?"  
  
Rio nodded, " He told me about giving you a surprise when he gave me my Christmas presents this morning."  
  
Eyes nodded thoughtfully, " So he gave you presents too...I expect Kousuke will be getting presents from Narumi Ayumu too." He turned back to Rio again, " Be careful when you opened the presents. It might be something dangerous. After all, you did try to kill him before. Narumi Ayumu shouldn't be one that forgives people easily."  
  
Rio nodded and moved towards the door, " If there is nothing more, I will be at my house. Call me if there are any instructions."  
  
Eyes nodded and Rio left his apartment. He looked back again at the 'bomb' and noticed that there was something underneath the bomb in the box.  
  
Taking out the 'bomb' he looked into the box and saw small book and a small bag. Eyes reached into the box, took out the book and opened it with caution.  
  
It was a small notebook and on the first page was a small note to him.  
  
' To Eyes Rutherford the Annoying git,  
  
Hope you like my first present, Rutherford. It was inspired by the incident from out first meeting, which I think you will remember very well.  
  
I decided to give you this notebook because I feel that my first present doesn't have any use value. I mean, what can a fake bomb do in daily life? So I choose a notebook.  
  
Now here's a question: Why a notebook?  
  
Because: A) You really need something to help you organize stuffs. Even if you can do that mentally, sometimes your brain can forget things suddenly. And B) You don't look like someone who will have a notebook.  
  
So here is a good notebook for you. You can do anything you want with it actually. Use it as scrap paper, use it to write the musical scores you composed or you can just throw it away. After all, this thing is yours.  
  
Oh, one more thing. Please do not ask me why I give you a Christmas present. Just treat it as a present from a friend or something. I am tired of people asking me such rude questions when I am trying to be nice.  
  
Last but not least  
  
Merry Christmas.  
  
Yours faithfully (not really),  
  
Narumi Ayumu.'  
  
Eyes read the note once more, closed his eyes and for a moment and thought about Kanone suddenly. He opened his blue eyes, looked at the book again and smiled slightly.  
  
" Merry Christmas and thank you."  
  
--  
  
Kousuke stared at the present sitting on the table in front of him; the present from Narumi Ayumu.  
  
" Should I open, or should I throw it away?" Kousuke muttered. After a few moments, he shook his head furiously.  
  
" I am being stupid! Why should I be afraid of some coward?!" He snapped. Grabbing the present, Kousuke opened it and shook out its contents.  
  
A voodoo doll dropped out and lied on the table.  
  
Kousuke stared dumbfounded at it before muttering, " Voodoo doll...that guy gave me a voodoo doll... maybe I can curse him with it."  
  
Just when Kousuke was going to get pins, he noticed a small piece of paper underneath the doll and pulled it out.  
  
It was a note.  
  
'To Asazuki Kousuke the Ultimate Liar who doesn't keeps his promises,  
  
Surprised? I should guess so. Anyway, I found this doll at a very interesting shop somewhere in the neighbourhood. Rutherford's present was bought from there too. Hope you like this present. You can use it to curb your killing urge if you want.  
  
Oh yes, one more thing. Please do not curse me with this voodoo doll because I have one myself. So if you did curse me and your curse come true, my voodoo doll's curse will be activated and...let's just say you will meet a terrible end as I had used a lot of pins.  
  
Anyhow, Merry Christmas.  
  
From:  
  
Narumi Ayumu.'  
  
Kousuke's eyebrow twitched when he finished reading the letter.  
  
" That annoying git... what kind of present is this?!" He muttered.  
  
--  
  
" Hmm..."  
  
Rio gave the present a poke and went back to staring at it thoughtfully.  
  
" From Narumi Ayumu's personality and way of thinking, he will probably give me something that will shock or surprises me. Something that should be scary or something weird. Yep, that should be his present. I have nothing to worry if it is something weird because I'm used to such things." Rio said confidently. Without hesitating, she opened the present and looked into the box expectantly.  
  
To her surprise, a small ordinary silver necklace sat on the bottom of the box instead of something strange or dangerous.  
  
Rio took the small necklace in her hands and stared at it carefully, looking for any traps that might be linked to the innocent looking necklace. But not one suspicious spot was found the necklace. Rio sighed and put the neck down.  
  
She had once again misjudged Ayumu's move.  
  
--  
  
Hiyono smiled as she hugged the teddy bear Ayumu had given her. She had called Ayumu before that and he sounded rather happy. When she had asked him why he was so happy, he said that he had given the three Blade Children presents, which they had never expected before.  
  
" I don't know why, but it feels kind of good." Ayumu had said happily.  
  
Hiyono nodded to herself and lied back on her bed.  
  
" Merry Christmas indeed."  
  
--  
  
~Owari?  
  
--  
  
Is this the end? I'm not sure...maybe I will write a sequel or something. But then I have a lot of stories to update and complete...  
  
Will be coming up with another Spiral fic soon...Ayumu, Hiyono, Eyes, Rio, Ryoko, Kanone, Kousuke, Madoka and even Kiyotaka are really good people to write about! I am looking forward to write about them!  
  
Once again, hope you guys like this story. Please RR!!  
  
And, Merry Early Christmas!  
  
From:  
  
XiaoBai. 


End file.
